Monday, March 16, 2015

Tethered by Pippa Jay

An
Unexpected Christmas Present Called Inspiration

Hi, I’m
Pippa Jay, author of scifi and the supernatural with a romantic soul.
Inspiration can be a wonderful thing, but can hit at the most inconvenient
times. You know, like just as you’re going to sleep, or in the middle of the
night. When you don’t have a single thing to hand to write with, except perhaps
the kids crayons and a napkin. I’ve even written down story notes with my
eyeliner because I literally had nothing else to hand. Getting a mobile phone
meant I would often end up sending several texts to myself because an idea hit
when I was out and about, and now I thank technology daily for my wonderful
smartphone that even made it possible for me to compose a 17K novella while
away on holiday. ^-^

There are
certain days I’m not supposed to be writing. Weekends are designated family
time, and we have a (reasonably) strict no technology rule. Of course, we don’t
always stick to it (psst, don’t tell my husband!). I shouldn’t have been
writing on holiday, but since we were sitting on the beach and the kids were
playing, I think I got away with it!

But
Christmas 2011, inspiration decided to play a mean trick on me. As hubs was
busy cooking Christmas dinner and the kids sorted through the presents they’d
opened, muse saddled me with the irresistible urge to start writing a far
future adventure story with a succubus-like assassin. Argh! Throughout the day,
I took whatever few moments I figured I could get away with to sneak upstairs
and scribble notes (it being back in the days when I still hand wrote a lot).
Pretending to fetch things from bedrooms, change a top, go to the bathroom,
bring down presents or take some to put away. Whatever else, at least I earned
stuffing my face with Christmas dinner after all those trips up and down the
stairs all day! And my family never guessed.

Somehow I
managed to get about five thousand words down that day. That one day of the
year when I really shouldn’t have been working. The result of that inconvenient
flash of inspiration was my scifi romance Tethered,
born on Christmas Day. I guess maybe it was muse’s present to me. Fortunately,
muse has never been that cruel to me since.

What was
the most inconvenient time or place that you ever got inspired?

Blurb:

She can kill with a
kiss. But can assassin Tyree also heal one man’s grief, and bring peace to a
galaxy threatened by war?

For Tyree of the Su, being an assassin isn’t
simply something she was trained for. It’s the sole reason for her existence. A
genetically enhanced clone—one of many in Refuge—she’s about to learn her
secluded lifestyle, and that of all her kind, is under threat by a race capable
of neutralizing their special talents to leave them defenseless.

For Zander D’joren, being a diplomat has not
only cost him his appearance, but also the love of his life. Scarred, grieving,
he must nonetheless continue in his role as co-delegate to the fearsome
Tier-vane or risk a conflict that could only end one way.

Now both of them need to keep each other alive
and maintain a perilous deception long enough to renegotiate the treaty with
the Tier-vane, or throw their people into a war that could wipe out Terrans and
Inc-Su alike. But there’s more at stake than humanity, whether true or
modified. Can the love growing between them save them both? Or merely hasten
their destruction?

After
spending twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals
laboratory, Pippa Jay is now a stay-at-home mum who writes scifi and the
supernatural. Somewhere along the way a touch of romance crept into her work
and refused to leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she
spends the odd free moment playing guitar very badly, punishing herself with
freestyle street dance, and studying the Dark Side of the Force. Although
happily settled in the historical town of Colchester in the UK with her husband
of 21 years and three little monsters, she continues to roam the rest of the
Universe in her head.